Coca-Cola's IPL advertising budget may go up to Rs 100 crore

NEW DELHI: This summer, Coca-Cola wants India to share a Coke, and is spending big money on the world’s richest cricket league to reach out to the consumer.

Coca-Cola’s advertising budget for the current edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) could be as big as Rs 100 crore — about three times the usual expenditure for the tournament. Coca-Cola is seeking to dominate television screens this year, cashing in on the relative absence of rival PepsiCo, say media buying officials.

“This year, we are seeing heightened activity and increased spending from Coca-Cola. The company is spending close to Rs 100 crore on ads during the IPL. Normally, it spends Rs 30 crore or so,” a senior media buyer told ET.

Coca-Cola, which is facing competition from smaller brands, has planned separate campaigns for regional markets where it wants to strengthen its base to push back emerging regional players, said officials from the advertising industry.

Another senior official from a creative agency said that Coca-Cola’s strategy is “two-pronged”. Besides national campaigns, the beverage maker has advertisements targeting several regional markets it wants to tap, he said.

The local unit of the US major is also working on introducing low-sugar and diet variants of existing brands, and bringing in new products with low sugar content requiring increased marketing push, he added. “With IPL available in six languages and across multiple screens, it enables us to leverage multiple platforms to focus on micro segmentation and build deep connects with consumers,” said a spokesperson for Coca-Cola. The company will be pushing three brands — Sprite, Thums Up and Coca-Cola — during the tournament across TV and digital platforms.

Coca-Cola will be the main sponsor for Star’s OTT platform Hotstar. There will be special segments called Thums Up Charged Shots and Sprite Refreshing Moments on Tamil channels. Maaza Refresh will be the sponsor of feeds on DD Sports, which primarily caters to a certain segment of the Indian audience.

“To seed conversations and amplify our campaigns on social media among teenagers and the youth, we will be live with our WAR-room which has the capability of conversation in 6 different vernacular languages, in addition to English and Hindi. This will be the hub to drive IPL team tie-ups via social presence,” the spokesperson added. However, the company did not comment on the budget.

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